GFCI trial by fire

[Crabcruncher]

I was walking around pool with electric leaf blower and looking up at screened enclosure, blowing pine needles off it. Stepped on edge of pool, lost my balance, and fell into pool with last thought of throwing leaf blower onto deck, which didn't work as power cord was wrapped around pool handrail.

As I submerged briefly, I saw leafblower and power cord sinking beside me.

I didn't feel a thing, but I got out quickly and pulled the cord from the outlet. Went inside and reset tripped gfci and got back in pool to retrieve leaf blower.

Three days later after allowing leaf blower to dry out completely I reconnected it to same outlet and it worked as good as new.
Same can be said for myself. Glad my outdoor outlets were protected.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

OMG OMG OMG~!!! How amazingly lucky were you!?!! Scary moment there, huh??

<whew!>

Glad our leaf blowers are battery powered.

Maddie

 

[kimkats]

oh my!!! You are living life right! SO glad it worked out like it did!

Kim

 

[todd.brock]

Wow- That’s a reason to not mess with Safety and rig something the wrong way! Glad you are ok! I remember the one time I sawed through the power cord of my circular saw. It was relatively uneventful. Just Tripped the breaker. Scared the heck out of me though!

 

[Ericprov]

I can’t tell you how many times an image of that has gone through my head.

So we have a battery powered leaf blower, too... gfci wont protect me from that.

I suppose idea is the battery has less juice than being plugged into the grid?

 

[ajw22]

I can’t tell you how many times an image of that has gone through my head.

So we have a battery powered leaf blower, too... gfci wont protect me from that.

I suppose idea is the battery has less juice than being plugged into the grid?

Welcome to TFP.

Throw all the batteries you want into your pool. They can’t electrocute you since a battery will not have a path of electrons outside the pool the way a power cord will. Battery powered devices are much safer around a pool.

- - - Updated - - -

Glad my outdoor outlets were protected.

You are the poster child for why one should never run an extension cord from a non-GFCI outlet to the pool.

 

[Winnie-the-Pool]

Just Kidding, Glad you are OK!


Electricity & water don't mix well